Recovery of horses from general anesthesia in a darkened or illuminated recovery stall

To assess whether recovery from general anesthesia, in an illuminated or a darkened stall, has an effect on time to first movement, time to standing, and recovery score.

Prospective randomized clinical study.

Twenty-nine healthy, 2- to 5-year-old horses undergoing surgical correction of dorsal displacement of the soft palate.

Each horse was assigned randomly to recover in either an illuminated (n = 15) or a darkened stall (n = 14). For pre-anesthetic medication, all horses received intravenous (IV) xylazine (0.4 mg kg(-1)) and butorphanol (0.02 mg kg(-1)). Anesthesia was induced with midazolam (0.1 mg kg(-1)) and ketamine (2.2 mg kg(-1)) IV and maintained on isoflurane in oxygen. Vital parameters, end-tidal CO(2) and isoflurane were recorded at 5-minute intervals. At the conclusion of anesthesia, horses were placed in either an illuminated or a darkened stall and xylazine (0.2 mg kg(-1)) IV was administered at extubation. Video cameras were used to record the horses while they were allowed to recover undisturbed. Video recordings were later viewed and recoveries were evaluated on a 100-point scale by three graders.

Horses in illuminated and darkened recovery stalls were evaluated on total anesthesia time, minimum alveolar concentration hours of isoflurane, time to first movement, time to standing, and total recovery score. There were no significant differences between the two groups in any of the measured parameters.

Recovering horses in a darkened versus an illuminated recovery stall may provide no benefit.

Darkening the recovery stalls for horses recovering from general anesthesia may be unnecessary.